Congratulations To Elon Musk On Wiping The Floor With Bill Gates And Officially Becoming The Second Richest Man On Earth
Source - Tesla boss Elon Musk surpassed Bill Gates to become the world’s second-richest person as the electric-car maker continued its staggering stock-market surge.
A 6.5 percent jump in Tesla’s share price added about $7.2 billion to Musk’s fortune on Monday, putting his total net worth at $127.9 billion — slightly eclipsing Microsoft co-founder Gates’ $127.7 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
Musk, 49, took the No. 2 spot on the ranking of the world’s 500 richest people less than a week after climbing past Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg into third place. The South African-born entrepreneur is still well behind Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, whose $182 billion fortune puts him comfortably at the top of the list.
I don't know why, but this doesn't feel real to me. When I think of Bill Gates I think of unattainable levels of wealth. Wealth that's so vast, so enormous, so all encompassing that it doesn't even make sense. Bill Gates is money. Elon Musk...is not. Elon Musk is the eccentric dude who goes on Rogan to smoke weed and talk about aliens...
He's the guy who married a goth and named his daughter X Æ A-12, whatever that means. He complained about being poor in 2010 and almost shut down his entire operation in 2017. To me, he'd the guy who's always teetering on the edge of financial disaster whereas Bill Gates couldn't get poor if he tried. Microsoft is the definition of blue chip. The world runs on its software and that's why Gate's been a billionaire since the late eighties.
From The Post:
Musk’s wealth has exploded by $100 billion so far this year thanks to the strength of Tesla’s stock, which accounts for the majority of his net worth. The Silicon Valley firm’s market value is approaching $500 billion — making it the most valuable automaker in the world — and its share price has jumped nearly 28 percent since it snagged a spot in the S&P 500 last week.
The upward trajectory could continue ahead of Tesla’s Dec. 21 debut in the benchmark index because big investment funds that duplicate the S&P’s holdings must buy Tesla shares to accurately track its performance.
Tesla's current stock price is hovering around $540 per share. Microsoft's is "just" $210. That said, Gates has given nearly $27 billion to charity so if it wasn't for that he's still have the number two spot behind Bezos. Reagardless, it's gotta feel great for Musk to surpass him. Especially after all the shit talk he and Gates have been engaging in in recent months…
Musk and Gates have publicly traded jabs in recent months. Gates criticized Musk in July for downplaying concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, suggesting he shouldn’t “confuse areas he’s not involved in too much.” That prompted Musk to tweet, “Billy G is not my lover.”
In February, Musk said his conversations with Gates had been “underwhelming” after the software magnate revealed he’d bought an electric car from Porsche rather than Tesla.
Chances are Musk's wealth will drop by the time I'm done writing this blog, but for right now he's the second richest man in the world. Congrats, dude. Only $80 billion more and you'll catch up to Bezos.